If you live in Hua Hin you might be about to get a visit from the Tourist Police

Tourist Police are stepping up checks on foreigners living in Hua Hin.

The checks involve officers visiting foreigners at home to ensure they have not overstayed their visa.

Expats in the popular resort town have taken to social media to report being visited by Tourist Police officers.

One report posted to a local Facebook group read:

“Had a nice friendly visit from tourist police today.

“They had 3 pages of names they said they needed to check for over stayer and address check here in Hua Hin”, the post read.

Another expat in Hua Hin told Thaivisa that Tourist Police officers were visiting addresses in the Smorprong area of the town on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thailand’s crackdown on visa overstayers began in 2016 under the Immigration Bureau’s ‘Good guys in, bad guys out policy’, which saw tough penalties put in place, including being blacklisted and barred from entering Thailand, for anyone found to have overstayed their visa.

In November 2017, Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantrawanich said there were about 100,000 foreigners in Thailand who have overstayed their visa in Thailand.

However, a report from the beginning of this year claimed that the number of foreigners living in Thailand having overstayed their visas was closer to 8,000.

Previously, officials have said that those who overstay their visa could have links to foreign criminals, organised crime syndicates and even Islamic State (IS) militants.

Many of the foreigners who have overstayed their visas are thought to be hiding out in Pattaya, Phuket, Hua Hin, Koh Samui island and Bangkok, official have said.